Walter Lippmann[4] (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974), was an influential[5] American journalist and commentator.

Lippmann was a prominent socialist from his youth, becoming president of the Harvard Socialist Club and a member of the Executive Committee of the Intercollegiate Socialist Society. He graduated from Harvard in 1910, but took his socialism with him into his journalism, joining the Socialist Party and the Socialist Press Club.[6] More than 20 years later, with the election of President Franklin Roosevelt, Lippmann apparently lost faith in the Constitution, telling FDR, "The situation is critical, Franklin. You may have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers";[7] in his column, Lippmann added that the use of "'dictatorial powers,' if that is the name for it—is essential."[8]

Lippmann retained his socialist sympathies even in the midst of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, when "WJL" [Walter J. Lippmann] wrote to "ECC" [Edward C. Carter]—head of the Communist-front "American Russian Institute" and Institute of Pacific Relations ("a vehicle used by the Communists to orientate American far eastern policies toward Communist objectives," according to a unanimous report of the bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee)[9]—urging "cooperation with the European revolutionaries and the Soviet Union in their attempt to build a socialist Europe as a nucleus for a world socialist order, with the obvious corollary of the establishment of socialism in this country."[10]

He has also been highly praised with titles ranging anywhere from "most influential" journalist[13][14][15] of the 20th century, to Father of Modern Journalism.[16][17] James W. Carey, an influential teacher of journalists,[18] considered Walter Lippmann's book Public Opinion as "the founding book of modern journalism" and also "the founding book in American media studies".[19][20]

He agreed with Theodore Roosevelt that the purpose of diplomacy was not to attempt the impossible but to deal realistically with the existing balance of power. During World War I he was a staff assistant to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, and a special adviser to Colonel House, President Woodrow Wilson’s top foreign policy advisor. Lippmann helped draft Wilson’s Fourteen Points in 1918, which became the basis for ending the war and restructuring world affairs at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, where he was advisor to House. In the 1920s he was editorial page editor of the influential Democratic newspaper the New York World, and sharply criticized the foreign policy of Harding and Coolidge for ignoring the League of Nations. When the World closed in 1931 he started his newspaper column Today and Tomorrow for the Republican paper the New York Herald Tribune. It was syndicated to 200 dailies across the country and continued until 1967.

For his work he received a total of three awards: Two Pulitzers and one Peabody. He won a Pulitzer prize in 1958 for "Special Awards and Citations;[24] in 1961 he won a Peabody award for "Television Contribution to International Understanding";[25] and he won a second Pulitzer prize in 1962 for "International Reporting", because of a high-profile interview with Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev.[26]

Public Opinion

In the 1920s philosopher John Dewey (1859-1952) engaged in a major debate with Lippmann on the impact of the technology on democracy. Both agreed that the communications revolution had created a large and more complex world, that political and social institutions had not kept pace with the changes wrought by technology, that the masses were more susceptible to propaganda, and that modernity threatened democracy. Their critiques diverge on solutions, especially whether or not democracy could be saved. While Lippmann saw the public as unredeemable and subject to mass manipulation, Dewey thought that more public involvement in socio-political affairs was needed and that tools of mass communication could be used to this end.[27]

Manipulation of Public Opinion

In 1922, Walter Lippmann published his book "Public Opinion" [28] which at the time presented a major milestone in marking the ability of a journalist to manipulate their readers and viewers. The phrase "Manufacture of Consent" is directly attributed to Walter Lippmann [29] from his book "Public Opinion". He wrote:[30]

That the manufacture of consent is capable of great refinements no one, I think, denies. The process by which public opinions arise is certainly no less intricate than it has appeared in these pages, and the opportunities for manipulation open to anyone who understands the process are plain enough.

Lippmann went very far into detail of these methods of manipulation. He gives uses of keywords, for the use of tapping into people's stereotypes, and the use of editorials afterwards to make sure that the pre-determined outcome is assured. He fully understood the opportunities for manipulation and detailed the process. Here is one such example:[31]

It is a problem of provoking feeling in the reader, of inducing him to feel a sense of personal identification with the stories he is reading. News which does not offer this opportunity to introduce oneself into the struggle which it depicts cannot appeal to a wide audience. The audience must participate in the news, much as it participates in the drama, by personal identification. Just as everyone holds his breath when the heroine is in danger, as he helps Babe Ruth swing his bat, so in subtler form the reader enters into the news. In order that he shall enter he must find a familiar foothold in the story, and this is supplied to him by the use of stereotypes. They tell him that if an association of plumbers is called a "combine" it is appropriate to develop his hostility; if it is called a "group of leading business men" the cue is for a favorable reaction.

It is in a combination of these elements that the power to create opinion resides. Editorials reinforce.

To this day, the aggressive use of keywords and stereotypes is widely used by the journalist establishment.

Politics

In 1937 Lippmann attacked President Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to reorganize the Supreme Court, which reflected Lippmann's growing criticism of the New Deal. Although he originally supported Roosevelt's policies, Lippmann felt that the president was placing the American constitutional system in danger by setting illegal precedents.[32] Despite this, however, he also was the one who advocated that Roosevelt assume emergency powers in the first place.[33]

Cold War

Lippmann is accredited with popularizing the phrase "Cold War" to describe the breakdown of the World War IIAllied Powers alliance and the growing post-war tensions. Although he opposed Communism[34] he adopted a "realist" position in foreign policy in the 1940s and opposed idealistic goals such as Wilsonianism—even though he had been a leading advocate of idealism in 1917-1918. He was distrustful of globalism or excessive involvements around the world. In the 1960s he was an articulate opponent of the Vietnam War, saying it weakened America's ability to fight the true Soviet adversary.[35]

Conservatism

Starting as a Socialist, Lippmann moved right through most of his life, becoming a conservative in the 1930s and an advocate of Natural Law.[36]

Death and Legacy

He passed away on December 14, 1974. The Lippmann House at the Nieman School of Journalism at Harvard is named after him. His influence was unprecedented[37] in areas of both public relations as well as journalism, and his influence can be seen everywhere[38] in the field of journalism.[38]

Quotes

"Men have to substitute purpose for tradition: and that is, I believe, the profoundest change that has ever taken place in human history."[39]

↑The Golos spy ring used Mary Price, his secretary, to garner information on items Lippmann chose not to write about or names of Lippmann's sources, often not carried in stories, but of use to the MGB.